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Hello Guys, it's time to take a hypothetical question in Javarevisited. Which programming book, would you love to buy, if you are given 100$ to spend? I know, when it comes to buying, people want to the worth of their money, and that's why I am posting this question to you guys. Suppose you are looking some books in a bookstore and suddenly salesman comes and say, at this particular minute, we are giving you 100$ FREE to buy any programming book. Now you just have 10 minutes to complete your purchase and take away those awesome Java books absolutely for FREE, what are the books you are going to buy?
Remember you can only buy books, whose total price must not exceed 100$, you can buy one book or a combination of multiple books. For the sake of price you can consider prices given at amazon for Java books paperback edition, remember you need to consider the price of paperback edition and not eBook. Also, you are free to buy any programming or software engineering book, not just limited to Java or related technology.

Talking about myself, I would love to spend my 100$ for buying following books, Though I wanted to buy more, but I ran out of time while choosing the last book, so that I can include the first two.

You can post your choice of book as a comment, and I will choose the best combination of books out of them, which fits on 100$ and post it here.

P.S. If you really want to play this like a game, only take 10 minutes to finalize your books and try to use every cent.

Recommended Programming Books from Community

Thanks for your comments guys. From all the comments, we can see a pattern while buying a programming book for reading, most of the suggestions are for books which are timeless, classic and can be read even down the years. Obviously, in this category, Algorithm and data structures tops, followed by books on Object-oriented programming, best practices, and software engineering. Following is the list of some of the classic programming books, suggested by our readers in the comments section. You can use this list to buy your next programming books when you have $100 to spare

1. Algorithm Unlocked by Thomas Corman, suggested by Atif is a good compilation of complex algorithm in an easy to read format. It's written by Thomas Corman, which has already authored and a co-authored lot of books on data structure and algorithm space. On top of that, it's real cheap, just $22.50

4. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software is suggested by one of Anonymous reader. This book is already 18 years old, first released in the mid-1990s, but still relevant and will remain effective, given the popularity of object-oriented language in the enterprise world. It cost around $47.99.

I found this books, which deserves a place in Java programmers bookshelf. I am a big fan of the paperback edition of books, because that gives me a real feeling of reading books, but given iPad and Amazon kindle advantage of carrying a large number of eBooks in your bag, I have started building my eBook shelf as well.

By the way, It's hard to get time to read programming books, but if you have the desire to learn and continuously improve yourself, you will definitely find at least half an hour daily or a couple of hours in a week to read programming books.

17 comments
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"Algorithms Unlocked" which is the new book by Thomas Cormen, which gives an excellent high-level overview of Algorithms - $22.50"Pragmatic Programmer" which really emphasizes software development as a craft, not just something that pays the bills - $34.72"Clean Code" which is a book that covers a lot of topics related to software engineering - $37.58Total - $94.80

I selected these books because for the most part they have a timeless aspect to them. That's not something you can say about many programming books (they get outdated fast). That's why I normally read books through Safari Books and not buy them.

I would buy :Code Complete 2 : $27.89Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code By Martin Fowler : $44.70The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers By Robert C. Martin : $28.65

I was looking for which programming book to read, when I stumble upon this article. I am still in college, but looking to learn programming in general. Some one please advise a programming book for college kids?

My favorite book is Code Complete and Code Complete 2, you can read that book as many times as you want but they are still classic. Invest your money on timeless books of software development and Engineering.